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Madagascar. Not the easiest triphttps://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/madagascar-not-the-easiest-trip/
https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/madagascar-not-the-easiest-trip/#respondFri, 12 Jan 2018 21:40:51 +0000http://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/?p=6709More Madagascar. Not the easiest trip]]>Madagascar, previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is a big island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of East Africa, quite close to the Mozambican shores.

When I say big, it is indeed quite huge, being the fourth-largest island in the world after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo – Australia is a continent, hence no mention here. To give an idea to the French people reading me, Madagascar with its 587,041 km2 is bigger than Mainland France but smaller than France if you add its 5 overseas regions.

Madagascar gained its independence in 1960 after just over 60 years of being part of the French colonial empire. Before that, it was a Kingdom, and even before that it was ruled by different people and alliances. It is now a constitutional democracy and a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

Malagasy and French are both official languages there.

What is fascinating about this country is that over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. Due to its split from the Indian peninsula around 88 million years ago, Madagascar’s native plants and animals evolved in relative isolation, making the island a biodiversity hotspot. Therefore the island has a unique wildlife and many different ecosystems to explore – that are obviously threatened by Man and environmental threats but let’s not think about that.

Here it is:

The sad part of Madagascar is that the country belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations. And it shows from the moment you hop on your taxi to the capital city.

The weird part of it being one of the poorest countries in the world, compared to let’s say Mozambique (where the GDP per capita is lower than in Madagascar), is that you actually see the poverty more bluntly. Adults and kids are dressed in worn-out clothes and sporting very tired shoes when lucky enough to wear them. Strangely enough, you still get the feeling that the population is super self-sufficient and hard-working. There are people everywhere and they are pretty much active growing their own food (you can grow almost anything in Madagascar), making coal, preparing their own alcohol, fixing cars, washing their clothes and dirty dishes (and themselves sometimes) in the rivers, walking their herds around… Everyone works a lot but it doesn’t seem to produce any wealth for them.

Even though investments in ecotourism, agriculture, education, health and private enterprise were made and did produce substantial economic growth, the benefits were clearly not evenly spread throughout the population. As of now, the economy is still not great and quality of life remains low for the majority of the Malagasy population.

It is hard not to see the poverty and especially hard to ignore it when you see the many kids sleeping between dirty puddles on the paved streets of the capital city Antananarivo. It is depressing and gets to the core, thus making this trip not the easiest trips, to say the least (and making it my most delayed post so far).

Everyone of us knows someone who “loves Africa” because it is so “beautiful and easy, you know, and hiring staff is so cheap and like, you know, it was their best experience abroad”. And you think, what a twat. Some people do not seem to see what’s on the other side of their amazing experience, the hardships, destitution and distress of the local population, the indecent disparities between us and them, the injustice of it because it originates from parts of history that we should be ashamed of. And in Madagascar, I felt horribly white and privileged and confronted to the reality of the messy unfair world we live in and feeling crap about it (even more than in Mozambique). Even Matilda felt super uneasy (Marlowe, bless him, didn’t get anything!).

Anyhow, let’s try to tell you about my trip and show you, despite the ugly side of its socio-economic reality, the beauty of this country because it is truly a beautiful country.

Because Madagascar is such a big country (and the roads are so bad), I would discourage regular tourists to do what we did (lol), which is to try to see as much as we could in only 3 weeks (my bad). Forget seeing everything. Concentrate on 2-3 places maximum and enjoy your time there. Seeing more would require lots of driving (and when I say lots, I mean lots) on really bad roads. It’s unpleasant, stressful and dangerous. And I am saying this even though we didn’t even drive the car! The car usually comes with a driver and thank God for that! Our driver and guide was called Randriamanantsoa Ramiara Rina aka Miara and was the most amazing and kind driver you could think of.

Google Maps refuses to show the itinerary because even Google Maps doesn’t know where to go and how long it would take, lol! So, roughly, we went from Tana to the west in an almost straight line, then up a bit then back on National 7 all the way down and west again to Ifaty.

We didn’t start by visiting the capital city but I believe, in retrospect, that it was a mistake to end our trip there. Unless you’re super keen on history, I would drop Tana completely and concentrate on the stunning nature and beaches that Madagascar can offer.

What I wrote on my diary at the time is: Tana > cold, chaotic, messy, hectic, dirty and polluted. So I suppose these are the bad sides of the city!!!! The city centre is really crazy and we stayed right there, where the narrow one-way streets are crammed with street vendors, street food stalls and people eating it, along with quite ordinary-looking shops right next to totally run-down houses and/or luxury hotels. There were beggars and dirty-looking kids everywhere. Lots of merchandise was pushed around by barefooted man-powered handcarts. Outside of the city centre, it is the same chaos but with tons of rice or brick fields, cows, chickens, geese and a lot of people walking barefeet in the mud, planting rice next to their dilapidated house. A lot of people go places on bikes too. Clothes are drying everywhere, right next to the road, thrown on bushes or directly on the grass.

Nevertheless here are a few photos of what Tana has to offer (along with super good restaurants and many different ways to eat foie gras…):

We stopped on the way to Miandrivazo in Ambatolampy, the city known for its numerous tiny aluminium cooking-pots’ factories.

We visited many shops, some small and other bigger ones, that sell arts and crafts during our trip. There is a strong effort put in the craft industry in Madagascar and an even stronger effort made to promote and sell it to the tourists. It is always very instructive to see how it is done and the selling part is not pushy, which is a good thing. It makes you wonder why there is nothing like it in Mozambique…

Let me put here a range of the crafts we discovered in a few different places:

One of the very nice things we did in Mada was our trip down the river Tsiribihina in the west of Tana. It was very peaceful and pleasant after the long drive to get there. We stayed on the boat 3 days. Matilda read (how surprising). Marlowe played around with whoever was available to hang out with him and listen to him talk (bla bla bla). I tried to read and get a tan (and took pictures). We stopped to camp along the way for 2 consecutive nights.

As we were going down the river, we stopped to splash in a waterfall named Nosin’ampela where we saw a species of lemurs called Fulvus. We stopped a few more times to visit 3 villages, the village where the market was taking place: Begidro, the village where we tried to buy (warm) beer: Tsaraotana, and the village where we saw the baobabs: Ambatomisay.

Along the journey, we saw a couple of crocodiles, many people on the shore waving at us, kids expecting food and more (the girls usually asking for elastics for their hair, dictionaries and clothes, boys for sweets and biscuits!) every time we stopped the boat, lots of dugout canoes transporting people and stuff, a few cows and three militia posts (basically sheds on the shore with 3-4 people in it) asking for money and rice in exchange for their “work” to guarantee that the area is safe and secure of thieves and/or poachers.

Our companions on that journey were Robert the captain of the boat, Bouboule the cook, Dani, Donald, the engine guy and the late 2 chickens, may they rest in peace. Miara our driver took that time to rest and do his own stuff.

Robert gave us some fun and appalling cultural facts during the journey:

Zebus are like a bank statement. They will tell your neighbours how rich you are. The more you have, the wealthier obviously. Watch out for zebu thieves. Men on motorbikes are likely to be zebu thieves, he said.

A zebu is worth between 300,000 and 1 million 500 Malagasy Ariary (between 90$ and 460$).

Kids live with their parents in the family home. But when a daughter turns 15, her parents build her a little house so she can start having sex in order for her to have 1 or 2 kids. The purpose, it seems, is not to get married per se but rather to show that the family has “wealth” because they have more kids coming into the family. As a consequence there are a lot of kids everywhere, kids helping out their parents, kids selling stuff at the market, kids looking after other kids, kids washing the dishes in the river… As a consequence, there is a huge problem of early pregnancy, important dropout from school, high illiteracy rates…

A stunning experience we had right after the boat trip was our climbing in Tsingy de Bemaraha Nature Reserve. With its 150,000 hectares, the reserve is the biggest natural protected area of Madagascar. Tsingy was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990 due to its unique geography, preserved mangrove forests, wild bird and lemur populations. The area is characterised by needle-shaped limestone formations, above cliffs over the Manambolo River.

The incredibly sharp limestone formations can cut through equipment and flesh easily, which makes traversing them extremely difficult. The word “Tsingy” is derived from a local word meaning “the place where one cannot walk barefoot”. And that is for sure something I wouldn’t advise!

After that, we went to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina where we walked around a bit and had lunch at Mad Zébu, one of the best if not the best restaurants in the country. Truly delicious.

Then we went to Kirindy Forest where we stayed the night. It is a dry tropical forest in the west of Madagascar. The nighttime walk in the forest was disappointing and a bit pointless to be honest as it was late (I am getting old!) and we only saw one lemur very briefly, a gecko and a tiny bird sleeping on a branch (okay, it was super cute but still!). There is supposed to be a number of species of nocturnal lemurs present so I suppose it was just a question of bad luck for us that night. Our daytime visit was much more interesting though, with the observation of a variety of endemic plants and weird-looking trees.

Morondava was our next stop. It is famous for its spectacular Allée des Baobabs. The whole scenery was gorgeous, what with the giant baobab trees, the paddy fields, the colourful rickshaws, the zebus and the sunset that day. The baobab trees have been preserved over the years for religious reasons but deforestation is real and large areas of this region, including some of the few remaining baobabs, are cleared to make way for sugar-cane plantations. Let’s hope they are still standing strong in the future because they look truly powerful and stunning.

We then drove across the desertic landscapes of the west with their shades of yellow and orange in order to head towards the green expanses of the highlands in the centre of the country, going to the south. We drove without seeing anyone except when we crossed lively villages along the way. We arrived in Antsirabe, the second largest city of Madagascar known for its high concentration of pulled rickshaws, for the night and went for a hike in crop fields and paddy fields the next day. Lunch was at a farm with music and villagers showing us how to dance the traditional dance (Hmmm, that went well).

Antsirabe:

The walk in the crop fields of the nearby village of Betafo was beautiful.

We then headed to Ranomafana National Park. It is located in the southeastern part of Madagascar. It is a tropical rainforest, home to several rare species of flora and fauna. It wasn’t our day again as we only saw 2 tiny adult chameleons and 4 lemurs. But the forest was lush and we could see a few endemic species of trees. Interesting fact: the secondary forest there was home to local markets before and nomadic tribes used to live there.

We passed by memory stones which were put there for the dead. At the time, the tradition of Famadihana, that is to say the turning of the bones, didn’t exist.

This funerary tradition of the Malagasy people in Madagascar apparently originated in the 17th century in its present form and consists of bringing forth the bodies of ancestors from the family crypts and rewrapping them in fresh cloth, then dancing with the corpses around the tomb to live music. We saw a couple of them as we were driving all along our trip.

The custom is based upon a belief that the spirits of the dead finally join the world of the ancestors after the body’s complete decomposition and appropriate ceremonies, which may take many years. In Madagascar this became a regular ritual usually once every seven years, and the custom brings together extended families in celebrations of kinship, sometimes even those with troubled relations. Sometimes, the families are told to “turn the bones” more often, which as you can imagine is a strain to the family’s finances but still a tradition that cannot be ignored…

Fortunately, the practice of Famadihana is on the decline due to the expense of silk shrouds and belief by some Malagasy that the practice is outdated. Early missionaries discouraged the practice and Evangelical Christian Malagasy have abandoned the practice in increasing numbers. The Catholic Church however doesn’t object to it because it deems Famadihana purely cultural rather than religious. Concern has been expressed about recent outbreaks of the bubonic plague that may be caused by contact with bacteria living on the deceased (nice!).

We then headed to the village for lunch.

We’re getting close to the end of our trip. Bear with me, people!

Isalo National Park was next. Green, beautiful (I’m making it short as a sign of acknowledgement that this post is taking much too long). We went on a really nice walk all the way to some natural pools.

Then we went to see the sunset in a really nice spot close to the hotel (What was the name of that beautiful place, Miara?).

Finally (yes!) we stayed in a bungalow on the beach in Ifaty located some 900 km southwest of Antananarivo. The Ifaty beach near Tulear is famous for its water and sands. We were quite remote from the village which means that we were literally alone on the amazing white-sanded beach. Not much to do apart from relaxing and going kayaking, sailing and paddle boarding. Bliss.

That’s it! It’s a wrap, people!

On the whole and in retrospect, it was a great trip in spite of the hassle of the long hours in the car and the uneasy parts of it (not to mention that we are still recovering from it financially!)

It’s a fact: Madagascar is a very poor country, with only just over 100 cities or villages with access to electricity. Only 5% of the population have access to what we consider modern amenities. Only 10% of the population have (cold) water coming out of the tap and toilets inside their home. More than half the population have no access to water nor to electricity.

There are still a lot of beliefs that do not help the population go forward and change their conditions: in the countryside, stone houses are only for the dead so people live in brick or mud houses. Some people believe there shouldn’t be any water inside their home so they wash themselves, the dishes and their clothes in the river and go to do their business in the wild.

Christianity has been forced onto the population through colonialism and missions thus a lot of huge beautiful churches flourish everywhere, which is always outrageous to me in general but particularly in poor countries. The money could be spent on education and bettering the population’s circumstances instead of brainwashing them into accepting what they have and pray for God’s mercy.

There are a number of core cultural features that are common throughout the island, creating a strongly unified Malagasy cultural identity. Values such as solidarity, destiny, karma shape the population’s worldview.

Other cultural elements commonly found throughout the island include the practice of male circumcision (in which we have been told the foreskin is eaten by the grandfather or a zebu in order to allow the child to enter his ancestors’ tomb!), strong kinship ties, a widespread belief in the power of magic, diviners, astrology and witch doctors, and a few others.

Fady (taboos) have to be known and respected. They are intended to appease the ancestors. To name a few: twins are fady (!!). Walking with your shoes on in certain places. Doing your business outdoors in certain places…

Last but not least, wherever you go in Madagascar, you will be a vazaha, a foreigner. It will be mumbled at you, mentioned to you, screamed at you, yelled to other people to inform them of your presence… You won’t be able to avoid it nor forget that you are one!

Last sentence to thank our numerous guides: Julien (Tsingy), Jean (Kirindy), David (Betafo), Lanto, Patrice (Ranomafana), Gaston (Anja), Emmanuel (Isalo), our boat staff that I have already named above, and of course Miara who put up with us all this time!

Go, see for yourself and take it easy!

]]>https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/madagascar-not-the-easiest-trip/feed/0fredmartin1976MadaVêsó at Bairro dos Pescadoreshttps://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/veso-at-bairro-dos-pescadores/
https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/veso-at-bairro-dos-pescadores/#commentsWed, 08 Nov 2017 05:58:15 +0000http://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/?p=6153More Vêsó at Bairro dos Pescadores]]>Vêsó‘s latest photographic session happened last Saturday. We met in front of Restaurant Costa de Sol at the very end of Avenida da Marginal at 04h45 in the morning (yes, you read it right!). We then drove to Bairro dos Pescadores where a lot of fishermen work and where their fish is sold on the street and at the market there.

Praia dos Pescadores is the beach from which the boat leaves when you want to go to Ponta Macaneta. So I have already taken quite a few photos there. Boat pics, bird pics, water pics, fishermen pics, you name it. My Instagram feed shows a few of them.

Even so, I had never taken sunrise pics and had never walked either to the actual village at the end of the beach. And going to a Vêsó walk is always a pleasure so I had to be part of it, no matter what time I had to wake up that day!

My personal challenge this time round was to try not to take any boat pics or at least to focus on other things, details i would not have laid my eyes on the couple of times I had been to the place before.

The good thing is that it means I’ve been super busy doing exciting things in the meantime (more on that soon), therefore it prevented me from finding the time to write. The downside of it doing it now is that I’ve forgotten most of the (very important!) things I wanted to say at the time…

Luckily, I wrote a few notes then and I still remember my general impression. So that will be it, which in a way will lead to a much quicker read for you!

So the first part of the trip was Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula all the way down to Cape Point. Then we did AfrikaBurn (read about it by clicking here) and finally we headed to the Western Cape Province and its numerous wine estates for a bit of wine tasting. Two weeks in total. To break it down, we spent 4 days in Cape Town, 5 days at AfrikaBurn and 5 days driving around the countryside in search of wine estates.

It was a beautiful trip, punctuated by very different types of visits, from very nice art galleries and museums (Goodman and Stevenson galleries, South Africa National Gallery), lively food and crafts markets (Palms and Woodstock markets) and deliciously hype restaurants (Ash, Fork and Chefs Warehouse among others) in Cape Town to the Boulders Penguins, stunning views from Table Mountain and windy Cape of Good Hope and a very charming scenery along the zigzagging roads going up and down the Peninsula (Chapman’s Peak Drive!). The trip to Robben Island was an important moment to grasp the reality of Nelson Mandela’s time in jail, as well as was the visit to District Six Museum to understand how the Apartheid regime in place expelled over 60,000 inhabitants of various races from the district in order to build and gentrify Cape Town’s city centre. Walking around Bo Kaap and its vibrant coloured houses was very pleasant and gave a bit of exotic flavour and multiculturalism to the maybe false impression of an otherwise very white city.

Cape Town is a big city, the second most populated urban area in South Africa after Johannesburg. It is very modern with sometimes the weird impression of a very sterilized-clean environment. But the nature around it still seems wild and untouched. It was named the best place in the world to visit by the New York Times in the USA and the Daily Telegraph in the UK in 2014. I kind of get it, though I’d never recommend a place surrounded by so much water and yet so little chance to enjoy it without a wet suit!

As for the Winelands, Groot Constantia and its ducks, Babylonstoren and its beautiful food garden and greenhouse, Spier wine farm and its Eagle Encounters Raptor Centre and deliciously yummy Hoghouse BBQ Restaurant, and Creation’s stunning 7-course menu with wine pairing (and kids’ equivalent!) were our very special experiences this time around. There are so many more around the region that it would be the mission of a lifetime to try them all. But some particular ones that we missed come to mind, such as Boschendal and Vergelegen for their picnics in beautiful gardens and cosy atmosphere.

Now that I have visited Johannesburg too, there is no way I would recommend one city over the other. It is just impossible to compare the two. They are complete opposites for me (except for some very Art Deco buildings), and it would be crazy to visit one and not the other. So you know what you have to do!

Art galleries, street vibes and Bo Kaap:

Table Mountain, Cape Point and the Peninsula:

Two Oceans Aquarium & Robben Island from the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and District Six Museum:

Wine estates and small towns along the way:

A big thank you to my friend Alex for helping me organise this great trip!

AfrikaBurn is the South African version of Burning Man. It happens every year on a private farm in the Tankwa Karoo National Park in the Northern Cape Province since 2007. That’s where:

As we were staying in Cape Town, the drive took a good few hours but was totally doable. You do have to slow down a lot on the last long stretch of dirt road at the end, which is boring but necessary. The ongoing sunset helped make the ride pleasant and otherworldly.

After queueing a bit to show our tickets and being given the usual festival bracelets, we were welcomed by very happy-loving and heavy-accented foreign volunteers who asked us if we were first-time Burners. Entrance for Burn virgins requires beating a big gong and rolling around on the floor to embrace the dust and the new and weird environment we had committed to stay in for the next 4 days. We complied. That was the easy part. Dark had settled. And now we had to find enough space to park the car and set up our tent (we NEVER do camping). It was also past dinner time for the kids and for us (the CRISPS were delicious).

The next morning, the kids were pretty excited. Marlowe as a full-on cowboy pirate, Matilda more bashful as a hippyish black cat (yes).

As it was our first time, we messed up a few things. The food we bought was only partially well chosen to last 4 days. We had bought melon, one of the things Burners say you should never ever buy as it smells quite quickly and you do have to keep all your trash with you until you leave the site. The batteries of our torches had not been checked and half of them were dead (and obviously we hadn’t brought more batteries with us). We didn’t sort out our ice, thinking we would just buy ice on site once (more on that later on). We bought red wine assuming it would be okay to drink it “room temperature”. It isn’t when the room you’re referring to is the desert, even in April. But one thing we thought and did well was to buy a trolley in order to put our stuff for the day in: water, snacks, toys, books, map, jumpers, hats, sunscreen, more toy guns, you name it… The kids loved it and were pulling and pushing it around most of the time. They could even jump in it when they were really too tired.

On the official website, it is said that “AfrikaBurn is the spectacular result of the creative expression of participants who gather once a year in the Tankwa Karoo to create a temporary city of art, theme camps, costume, music and performance!” The event is centred on the construction of temporary artworks in a semi-desert environment, all built by committed volunteers and artists that gather, for some of them, 6 to 8 weeks before the beginning of the festival (remember it’s the desert, there is literally nothing around). Some of the artworks are burnt during the event, I think this year it started quite early, from the Tuesday, and kept going until the Sunday early morning. The rest is dismantled by the volunteers and artists that stay on site after the end of the festival.

So I was expecting a lot of art… And not so much music… I think that’s where the problem lay for me (more on that later too).

Anyway, some of the art was stunning. Our first day was dedicated to walk the site (it’s big!) and attempt to see most of it.

The burns we manage to attend were spectacular and always pretty mystical. People were gathering around them in silence and looking intently. Sometimes, on the contrary, there would be a mutant vehicle blasting techno music right next to it, with a crowd of people dancing around it, and it would suddenly turn into a very hedonistic and pagan celebration.

Part of the fun resided in the costumes -or absence of- sported by many attendees. It makes it super interesting for the kids to see that you can dress (or not) the way you want and nobody gives a shit about it.

Also some of the mutant vehicles authorized on site were pretty crazy. You do have to admit that some adults at AfrikBurn have a very creative side that totally expands on an occasion like this. I think my favourite is still the sushi moped (because you really have to be dedicated to just get inside it). And the flying carpet -which we had a ride on- looked pretty cool too.

The theme for AfrikaBurn this year was Play. The theme is intended as a point of possible connection, or inspiration for the art or performance on site but is not enforced. As it was our first Burn, I can’t really say how much people got actually inspired by the theme this year.

By analogy to the Man at Burning Man, the main sculpture of the event is called the San Clan. It is supposed to be the best burn of the week and, especially for this edition, everyone was really looking forward to attending it because it had been built by the same team as a previous year where the San Clan had burned by stages and had ended up moving and transforming itself while burning. Unfortunately, this year, the burn was postponed because first it wasn’t ready and then again because of the wind. So we ended up missing it as it was eventually scheduled super early in the morning on our last day.

Again because AfrikaBurn is a regional Burning Man event, it adheres to its ten principles, and even have one more, which are: Communal Effort, Participation, Civic Responsibility, Immediacy, Decommodification, Gifting, Leaving No Trace, Radical Inclusion, Radical Self-Reliance, Radical Self-Expression and Each One Teach One.

The 11th principle, Each One Teach One, was added to encourage the sharing of knowledge throughout the community, in order to ensure the uptake of culture matches the growth in numbers.

These principles are genuinely great but verging on utopian, to be honest. It would be totally amazing if all the Burners followed them, but unfortunately, and maybe because of the numbers growing and of the crazy party-goers coming just for the weekend (It was mushroom heaven, people), it was far from being the case, especially regarding Civic Responsibility, Leaving No Trace (and I am not talking just about condom packaging) and Each One Teach One.

But the spirit of the event was still there, everywhere, in the spontaneous Gifting that some people did all along the event, in the artworks that were built out of love for weeks before the event officially opened to the “ordinary” Burners, in the long hours worked by each volunteer and ranger on site helping the people in need and checking that everything was going smoothly and in the theme camps that were symbols of what a group of people gathering could do creatively and humanly when they unite.

Even though we didn’t have the chance to fully make the most of them – shame about the CEXx camp -, the theme camps helped show us what it is to be part of a community and share with others, on a free, totally altruistic vibe. Major theme camps this year were Alienz Coffee Shop, Birthday Suits, Burning Mail, Camp Pompei 2017, Flow Arts Commune, Le Petit Paris, New Beginnings, Sweet Love Cinema, The Pancake People, The Purple Spanking Booth T, The Steampunk Saloon, The Underpants Hotel, Plays Gone Wild and many more.

The kids spent 2 afternoons at the Plays Gone Wild camp, met with lovely people there and performed in the play that had been written on site. Decor was built on site too.

Let’s be honest here, some things were not good: the non-stop rave music was a pain in the neck (and it relieves me to know that so many long-time Burners complained about it this year – I felt less old), the so-called ice selling point was always packed and a failure and a waste of time, the times of events and burns were, even if they had warned about it, all very approximate and you would learn about something amazing too late (sometimes you would discover it on the AfrikaBurn Facebook group weeks after!).

But would I go back and change a few things to make the experience better? Possibly. It is clearly written on their website that it is a NO spectator event. It is all about participation. And it is something I lacked doing, perhaps because I felt intimidated and overwhelmed (I did organise an improvised “gift” by giving a lift to a volunteer who had spent the previous 6 weeks in the desert building an artwork and had ended up at hospital for a week after having her leg crushed by a cherry picker – she was so happy to go back, even on crutches, bless her). Anyhow, I truly believe that the experience would be amazing with good and fun friends around (and bikes to ride around at any time of the day and night, and the right amount of alcohol in the system!).

]]>https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/play-at-afrikaburn-or-not/feed/1fredmartin1976afrikaburnIMG_9070IMG_9120Second VêSó session: Chamanculohttps://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/05/19/second-veso-session-chamanculo/
https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/05/19/second-veso-session-chamanculo/#respondFri, 19 May 2017 14:59:30 +0000http://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/?p=4785More Second VêSó session: Chamanculo]]>Another great photography session with VêSó last weekend. A little bit more remote part of town this time around: Chamanculo.

It is quite a big district of Maputo, divided between Chamanculo A, B, C and D.

Compared to our first walk which was about 2-hour long, this one took over 3 hours. We were very lucky to be welcomed by two young men from the neighbourhood, Pedro and Almeida, who showed us around and talked to us about the Chamanculo Guezi Festival they organise and the community work they do in order to improve the lives of the inhabitants of this area.

The experience was very different from the first session we had in the Baixa, and, to be quite frank, much more challenging. People in Chamanculo were very intrigued and excited to see a group of photographers and were rather keen to be taken into photos, even the women!

As far as I am concerned, I like to take inanimate objects such as things from our everyday life, street graffitis, walls, windows, doors and buildings in general, as well as people… For humans, my preference usually goes for portraits or live collective pictures of everyday scenes. Also, I like a neat background, which can be tricky to get if there are lots of people walking around and/or passing by.

That day in Chamanculo, the kids were out and playing among neighbours and friends and if you caught the eye of one, in a matter of seconds all their friends would already be there, piling on top of each other trying to all squeeze in the frame and be snapped together.

Anyway, the day was fun and interesting.

Not only did I manage to snap a few cool pics but I also had the opportunity to get to know a bit better some of the photographers from the first session and the privilege to meet great people from Chamanculo.

Here we are, minus me as I was the one taking the picture (and a few others actually as we split at one point):

But writing one is a different story. I do try to keep it real and I am well aware of the huge gap between the people who can afford to go places and the people who cannot. Especially living here, where for most it is not even about being able to afford to go on holiday but rather being able to afford to pay for enough food to put on the table every day.

Hence my somehow weird procrastination about writing this post.

Going to Nahyeeni Lodge implies booking it a very long time in advance and giving a deposit that already feels wrong, so high is the advance payment.

Going there with my very dear French friend Christine didn’t help ease the feeling either!

Anyhow, after discussing it over a long exchange of emails and skype calls, Christine and I decided that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was the first time that she was coming to visit us in Mozambique and the first time for her husband and kids to go so far away from home. She is a hard-working doctor in France and had the money to do it. We had been in Maputo for over a year then, and after a year living here, it was strange to never have stayed on an island less than an hour away from Maputo. Also, a lot of people had mentioned Nahyeeni Lodge as THE lodge to go to when going to Inhaca Island.

Because we were already dumbfounded by the amount of money we were going to spend anyway, we ended up going totally nuts and chose the full board option, making this trip the first one when I actually really felt like a white girl having a (really) good time in Africa.

Now that I have got this out the way, and every white and/or wealthy person reading this has reflected on their whiteness/financial means and the privileges that go with it, let’s write about our stunning weekend on Inhaca.

Inhaca is right there, only 45 minutes away from Maputo by motor boat:

You don’t decide when you go there. The tide decides for you. We were lucky and only had to turn up at the harbour for 8 o’clock in the morning. Do not tempt fate. Just arrive on time.

The people who were going to look after us during our stay, as well as the very friendly manager of the lodge, were there waiting for us and welcomed us when we arrived at the harbour.

The journey was okay on the whole, though bumpy, but that’s what the Indian Ocean does to you.

We were all pretty excited. But nothing compared to our state of delirium when we actually climbed up the stairs and saw the lodge with our own eyes.

Damn. So that’s what we were lucky enough to enjoy for 3 days. I hadn’t even realised when I booked that the lodge would be ours alone for the length of our stay, even though they do have extra bungalows in the garden for more people to stay on top of the main house. We reminded ourselves that the experience was nothing but literally extra-ordinary and enjoyed every second of it.

Look at the view we had.

As soon as we arrived, we jumped into the pool and then started organising our schedule (yes, I know, very me but my friend is strangely enough -or not!- the same). The boat that had taken us there had dropped anchor in the water down below and the captain was available on request to go and visit places (for extra costs obviously but that was not too bad).

We agreed to go snorkelling towards Santa Maria. Every one calls it Santa Maria Reserve but it is not on Santa Maria Peninsula. It is indeed a bit confusing but it is at the very end of Inhaca and you can see Santa Maria on the other side but the water is rough and there is no way you could swim across there, even though it’s very close. The kids did snorkelling for the first time in their life with their new, very ugly, futuristic-looking Decathlon masks on and it was a-ma-zing. Marlowe stayed in the water as long as he could. We literally had to pull him out of the water. Some of us went for a walk. Others just stayed sunbathing on the beach. Pretty chilled out afternoon, to say the least.

As you can see, we did have to push the boat for a while before taking off because the tide was pretty low and the boat was sitting firmly on the sand. To be honest, I didn’t remember it (maybe because I didn’t push that much?!?). Or maybe the colourful starfishes and the flamingoes flying along quickly made us forget the episode.

Another stunning outing was our walk to the lighthouse. It was hot and a long walk with kids but they’re used to walking pretty much now and it was so worth it. The boat trip was okay on the way there but totally crazy on the way back as we had to go out into the open sea and cross through the waves to do so. But apart from that little (big) fright, all went smoothly and we really enjoyed that walk.

Take a lot of water and snacks if you happen to do it. Even grown-ups will be happy to munch on an apple or some cashew nuts after the exercise (and a beer or two should totally be ready to be opened in the cool box)!

It is hard to find the words in order not to sound cheesy about it but on the whole our weekend was amazing and we would definitely go back every weekend if we could afford it! The lodge, the location, the island, the view, the food, the people working there, everything and every one… It is a very special place and we felt very special too to be there.

Thank you Christine for making us go there and enjoying this little paradise together

]]>https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/nahyeeni-a-little-paradise-a-stones-throw-from-maputo/feed/2fredmartin1976inhacaimg_6273My first VêSó outinghttps://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/my-first-veso-outing/
https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/my-first-veso-outing/#commentsSun, 02 Apr 2017 09:17:30 +0000http://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/?p=4578More My first VêSó outing]]>VêSó is a non-profit making organisation that wishes to gather a collection of images in order to create a digital bank of datas and archived pictures to keep a trace of how a city/country/neighbourhood looked like at a given period of time.

The idea started in Angola and has now been launched in Mozambique by a very enthusiastic and committed young woman named Neide Tsunami.

The first outing organised took place in the Baixa of Maputo starting from Tunduru Gardens and going down to the Fortaleza, through Rua de Bagamoyo to the CFM train station, Mercado Central and back to the beginning.

At the end of the 2-hour walk, Neide asked us to send her our favourite 25 photos, which I did.

Here they are:

The experience was amazing.

Not only did I meet great like-minded people but the fact that we were a group empowered me to take pictures of things and places that I usually don’t dare take.

Also, I learned (or rather had the confirmation) that men are very happy to be taken in photos whereas women are more reluctant.

]]>https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/my-first-veso-outing/feed/2fredmartin1976IMG_8544IMG_8693IMG_8636IMG_8711IMG_8643IMG_8629IMG_8687IMG_8648IMG_8673IMG_8701IMG_8708cropped-img_8654.jpgcropped-img_8532.jpgIMG_8667IMG_8628IMG_8601Version 2IMG_8591IMG_8582IMG_8561IMG_8570IMG_8557IMG_8559IMG_8560Version 210 days & 3500 km in Namibiahttps://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/10-days-3500-km-in-namibia/
https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/10-days-3500-km-in-namibia/#respondMon, 23 Jan 2017 22:03:25 +0000http://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/?p=3953More 10 days & 3500 km in Namibia]]>I’ve already said it, I have a pretty poor knowledge of where most places are located on our planet, and Namibia was until recently one of them.

The only quality that saves me from being an ignorant fool is that I am a curious ignorant fool, so that’s okay, I guess, isn’t it?

What fascinates me – and also makes me very sad and angry – when I go somewhere is to know where those countries come from in terms of history, and in Africa generally it inevitably means colonisation.

Namibia is no exception to the rule, except that it is a former German colony with a British twist via its South African dominion status at the time.

Obviously, most of the country being desert or semi-desert, the problem doesn’t show immediately but here and there you have a sense of it and there is no way you cannot notice the architecture when you arrive in Swakopmund. This beach resort is a clear example of German colonial architecture and I don’t know if it does it to other people but I felt quite depressed about it because it does feel very strange to be in Namibia for hundreds of kilometres and suddenly reach a German town, such a complete opposite of what Namibia should look like for the Namibian people in their own country.

It is part of their history obviously and it is life but you just wonder what some cities (or absence of them) would look like had it not been for the Germans. I’m not saying it would be differently better or worse, I’m just saying that colonisation stripped millions of people and hundreds of countries from the possibility to be the actors of their own identity.

End rant.

Looking on the bright side of things, since independence was gained from South Africa in 1990 Namibia has successfully completed the transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy and on the German side, Germany formally apologised for the Namibian genocide in 2004. Namibia nowadays enjoys high political, economic and social stability and has become a prime destination in Africa.

+Namibia’s Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world. Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world.

+Being situated between the Namib and the Kalahari deserts, Namibia has the least rainfall of any country in sub-Saharan Africa.

+Namibia has the second-lowest population density of any sovereign country, after Mongolia, with under 3 people per km2.

+Providing 25% of Namibia’s revenue, mining is the single most important contributor to the economy. Namibia is the fourth largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa and the world’s fourth largest producer of uranium.

+Tourism is a major contributor (14.5%) to Namibia’s GDP, creating tens of thousands of jobs (18.2% of all employment) directly or indirectly and servicing over a million tourists per year.

+Although arable land accounts for only 1% of Namibia, nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture.

+Even though per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa’s poorest countries, the majority of Namibia’s people live in rural areas and exist on a subsistence way of life.

+Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cash-less economy.

+Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address conservation and protection of natural resources in its constitution. Article 95 states, “The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future.”

Let’s have a look at the map.

Namibia is a southern African country whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Zimbabwe is not too far, with just 200 metres separating the two countries via the Zambezi River.

That was a freaking long introduction, sorry about that.

So the trip now!

We arrived in Windhoek on the Friday night, went to a lodge to sleep and went straight to the car rental agency after an early breakfast the following day. We were only in Namibia for 11 nights and had planned a lot to see (strangely enough!) so there was no time to lose.

After a video that seems to be like an hour long (but was probably 15 minutes) about car safety, the dangers of speeding and the potential hazards we could meet on the different types of roads of Namibia – did I mention that speeding was dangerous -, we got in the car, went to the supermarket for a bit of food and stuff shopping and hit the road. We knew the first day would only be about driving down south to Aus so that’s just what we (when I say “we”, that means Henry) just did.

We arrived just in time for welcome drinks and a plouf in the pool at our amazing first lodge Klein Aus Vista. We then had oryx roast for dinner and headed to our “rooms” for the two nights we were staying there. Our accommodation was about 7 kilometres away from the main lodge in their private property in the desert, hidden behind a big rocky mountain, with wild horses and oryx aplenty grazing around. We stayed in 2 Eagle’s Nest chalets, built into rounded granite boulders with a rugged mountain as a backdrop. The surroundings were stunning and oh so peaceful. It was the perfect beginning to our trip. On our second night at the chalets we had a brai while we watched the sunset so life was pretty good.

The next day we headed to Kolmanskop. Kolmanskop is the reason why it took me so long to organise this trip because everyone had advised me against it: we were only staying 10 days, it was too short to do it, the drive would be too long, there were so many other/better things to do and places to see, blah blah blah . But I can be very stubborn and so Kolmanskop had to be.

It is a ghost town which used to be a German mining village at the beginning of the 20th century. The town declined after World War I when the diamond-field slowly exhausted and was ultimately abandoned in 1954.

The amenities and institutions there used to include a hospital, a ballroom, a power station, a school for over 40 German kids, a skittle-alley, a theatre and sport-hall, a casino, a poker room, 2 brothels, an ice factory, a saltwater swimming pool and the first X-ray station in the southern hemisphere (not for broken bones but rather to check if employees had not nicked a few diamonds), as well as the first tram in Africa.

They had to import 1000 tons of fresh water, transported in barrels from Cape Town every month.

They used to import champagne from Rheims for their fine dinner parties. They had opera singers shipped all the way from Germany for special occasions…

We are in the middle of the desert, in Southern Africa, in the early 20th century, so all of this is pretty impressive.

At its peak, over 1000 people worked there. The miners’ job consisted of literally crawling on the floor with a nylon mesh mask on the mouth (to prevent them from swallowing some on the way) in search of the scattered diamonds. At the end of their 2-year contract (with not one day off), employees had to endure a quarantine period where they basically had to shit on a nylon meshed toilet to check if they hadn’t tried smuggling diamonds! How lovely… I am sure you can see a little obsessive leitmotiv here.

That’s for the story. For the rest, the place is beautiful and eery. An amazing playground for little ones as well as grown-ups. The houses are still standing but are all sanded in. The light comes in and plays with the different windows and cracks on the walls and ceilings. I could have stayed there for hours taking photos!

We then went to Lüderitz for lunch and had the biggest crayfish ever. The harbour town has the same weird feel as Swakopmund that I mentioned earlier but it is a charming little town.

After 2 nights in Aus, we had to start our drive back up north, first in the direction of Sossusvlei. We took a gravel road as we wanted to go on the scenic route. That’s when, after a few hundred kilometres, I thought to myself that I would probably never want to live in Namibia! As a city girl, the idea that my next neighbour is probably a 2-hour drive away from me is rather terrifying. I know some people do love the peace and quiet but Namibia takes the concept to a whole new level. I mean, even villages (after 200 kilometres of not seeing a single soul, car, house, donkey) consist of 2 to 3 houses standing at an intersection… As much as I sometimes complain about my neighbour putting the volume of his television too loud, I am not sure this country would be good for me and my sanity. So remember when/if you go there that when you ask a resident how far somewhere is and the answer is “not far”, consider it being at least a hundred kilometres as that is really close by in Namibian standards.

Anyhow, on our way to Sossusvlei, I will spare you the number of corpses and decomposed bodies of animals along the way but apart from those, the landscapes were beautiful and so diverse. Constantly changing colours and shapes. And so many huge nests defying gravity in the trees!

That’s how busy it looked on the way to Sossusvlei…

What with random facts, on the way, we stopped at Duwisib Castle to take a break and see this original castle literally built in the middle of nowhere. A German baron decided that a castle would be the best summer house he could think of at the beginning of the 20th century… Including crenellated towers, a patio with a fountain and a bar in the basement, Duwisib Castle is a surreal break in the middle of a long and lonely day of driving.

For our special “dunes day”, we decided to start with Dead Vlei. Its name means “dead marsh” and is a dry white clay pan in a valley between the dunes, located near the more famous salt pan of Sossusvlei, inside the Namib-Naukluft Park. The trees died because there was no longer enough water to survive. The remaining skeletons of the trees are black and mega dry, though not petrified. The remaining plants around adapted to survive off very little water (Namibia is the driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa) and morning mist.

The surprise for me was that I naively thought that the place was rather small and that the dunes were just there and bam it would be done. But it is actually a huge place and the dunes stretch one after the other, with names like Elim Dune, Dune 45 and Big Daddy, on over 70 kilometres. Dune 45 should have given me a hint as it is so called because you have to drive 45 km to reach it… Oh well (Sometimes, I don’t read the guide book, can you believe it?!)… Some dunes can be as high as 300-400 metres so that day was definitely my sports day.

After our dune overdose, we headed north west toward Swakopmund which was our next destination. We saw tons of baboons crossing the road (they were everywhere to be honest), vultures and mountain zebras in the Naukluft. We crossed the tropic of capricorn (but couldn’t be bothered to stop to get a picture of the sign).

We reached Swakopmund via Walvis Bay. The road between the 2 has its charm given that you have the ocean on your left and dunes on your right. But the ocean is filled with petrol tankers and huge platforms floating in the distance which gives a weird futuristic vibe to the décor. With its 100,000 inhabitants, it is also the Dubaï of Southern Africa with its luxury compound of square minimalist bunker-type houses right next to each other on a spit of land along the ocean, made known by the late couple Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie when they decided to give birth to their first biological child in Namibia and stayed in Langstrand for the whole period. The ocean being freezing cold and the water too rough to swim in anyway, I don’t get it but hey, each to their own.

I mentioned Swakopmund in my introduction. Beach resort. Weird German architecture and South African people mix. South African kids arriving in posh restaurants barefoot because apparently they are not used to shoes (I was told some SA schools do not require them to enter their premises!! – To their defence, I have to say that I heard with my own ears some South African parents asking their kids to put shoes on when the kids wanted to look for scorpions in the desert and took our kids along, so there are limits to their love of barefootedness). My photos unfortunately do not show any piece of architecture because it was, well, a city and not that exotic to me. Imagine what a small town in Germany would look like but, well, in Africa…

Walvis Bay is the departure point for the catamaran trips that take you to see the seals and oyster farms. So we went back there the next morning.

We were the last group to board one of the many catamarans booked that day so we basically were a small group of 10 with the food on board for 20. It was an oyster and fish feast! And champagne or rather sparkling wine was served from the very early hours of 9:30-10… The explanation on oyster culture was so interesting for a French girl like me (who happens to love oysters) because the way they do it in namibia is very different from the way we do it in France. It is much quicker in Namibia as they put the oysters unattached in boxes in deep sea (and wash them every 6 weeks) so they grow twice as fast as their French counterparts which are dependent on tides. Unfortunately for me, they seem to be exclusively milky and it’s a variety I don’t like much so I mostly ate the cooked ones.

Apart from the fact that our group included a bunch of highly racist Russian people who had lived in Namibia for the past 13 years, the trip was lovely.

When we returned to the main land, we drove to Walvis Bay lagoon to contemplate the flamingoes. There were hundreds of them.

We left Swakopmund to carry on to our next destination on a very foggy morning. The atmosphere and landscape around gave a sense of pending apocalypse. The only missing elements around were the zombies coming from the desert to kill us all.

In the Brandberg region on the way to Twyfelfontein, we never saw so many cars on the road! Maybe like 20! So busy And proper trees for picnic breaks (big enough for a bit of shade, joy!). Apart from that, there was nothing around, not a soul… except a little boy on a donkey cart in the middle of nowhere and later on 2 women selling gems and mineral stones along the road at a crossroad. And one small house. That’s it.

We arrived at Twyfelfontein in the scorching hours of the afternoon and had to motivate the kids to get out of the car and walk in the heat while they were like “haven’t you always told us that we should always avoid walking in the sun?” “where is the shade?”… We’ve always told them that walking in the sun was not a very smart thing to do so a battle of persuasion ensued but I’m happy to say that we won it.

For your general knowledge, about 6000 years ago, the bushmen living there carved some stones in Twyfelfontein in order to tell their fellowmen about their stories and the things they had seen. Wildebeest, giraffes, rhinos, lions, seals, flamingoes, ostriches are the animals you can see there, to name a few… Meaning that they went all the way to the coast – on foot!!, saw seals and stuff and came back to engrave the rocks there.

The place was a place of worship and a site to conduct shamanist rituals. Shamanism was a very important aspect of their life and you can see it in some of the engravings where the animals have 5 claws representing the 5 fingers of each hand of the human beings that the animals were supposed to have been too.

Twyfelfontein was declared Namibia’s first World Heritage Site in 2007 as one of the largest concentrations of rock petroglyphs in Africa.

After our little walk in the sun, we carried on to Vingerklip Lodge. A friend of ours had strongly recommended it, and oh was she right. The place is stunning, luscious vegetation, giraffes and baboons in the nature all around and has 2 swimming pools and a restaurant on the top of a mountain!

Vingerklip takes its name after the finger-shaped rock formation standing in the middle of the property.

We are almost reaching the end of our trip now – thus the end of this post, alleluia.

After a week in the country, the time had finally arrived to go to Etosha National Park. We managed to get a photo with a Himba woman in traditional attire just before entering the park. We had seen a few of them selling arts and crafts in touristic places but had never managed (or dared) to get close and have a chat. The one who accepted to take the photo with us was so defiant but managed to relax and smile while the photo was taken by her friend. What a woman she was. Very intimidating.

About the park, our expectations were high, our dreams unrealistic, or apparently so. We wanted elephants, herds of giraffes and rhinos, lions and cheetahs… and we saw tiny ferret-looking rodents, weird-looking walking birds, a couple of giraffes, a few more zebras and gnus, many springboks and hartebeests, one baby hyena, 2 rhinos and zero elephants. 7-hour drive for not one elephant… How extremely disappointing. I know animals are not guaranteed but still I want a refund.

There was water everywhere so waterholes were a bit pointless, plus the weather was very stormy and rainy, with lots of lightning in the distance so the animals could have been hiding somewhere, who knows… I would definitely hide.

Okay, I need to be honest here and admit that we saw a lioness chilling next to her dead gnu, but it was quite far, like far enough for my camera to be a pain. Speaking of which, it is the first time I had to ask my faithful sidekick to turn the engine off so I could take pictures as the vibrations were interfering with my camera focus… Weird.

Our last visit was the Cheetah Conservation Fund on the way back to Windhoek. It is a non-profit organisation looking after cheetahs that were used as pet cheetahs or that got injured by predators or by farmers. Sometimes they take orphaned cubs in too after their mother gets killed. Cheetahs are beautiful animals, very slender and majestuous. It was pretty cool to get close to them.

We learned all sorts of interesting things about them and about the prevention work they do with farmers and shepherd dogs that they happen to ship all the way from Turkey! The world is full of surprises!

The road to go the CCF was gorgeous. Beautiful shades of blue above us, green in the fields and terracotta colour on the termite moulds. Tons of them! And goats, cows and warthogs roaming free.

Our last night in Namibia was in an amazing place, again, where we took the time to remember our trip and count our blessings as we realised that this country had been very special indeed, even though lacking in elephants…

Thank you Carole and Isabelle for helping me organise this trip!

]]>https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/10-days-3500-km-in-namibia/feed/0fredmartin1976namibia16121988_10154963739034297_1007009794_oMauritius, diverse and delightful tiny islandhttps://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/mauritius-diverse-and-delightful-tiny-island/
https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/mauritius-diverse-and-delightful-tiny-island/#commentsMon, 28 Nov 2016 23:01:58 +0000http://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/?p=2616More Mauritius, diverse and delightful tiny island]]>Life is getting in the way of my blog, people. Not good… But fine at the same time in a way, I suppose, because it means I’m finding ways to keep myself busy. After over a year here, it was about time really!

Anyhow, nothing should come in the way of telling you how beautiful Mauritius is!

And for the ones who know me, I have very fond memories of the stunning French department (Martinique) and former overseas territory (New Caledonia) I lived in as a child and as a pre-teen so I’m totally a sucker for paradisiac places but/so also a very demanding client.

Mauritius is located a few hours away from Maputo, so it could be convenient to travel to this country (like on an every-holiday basis!) but obviously the only direct flights are in the middle of the week so we still had to transit via South Africa. Nonetheless it is quite quick to get there.

It is located in the southwest of the Indian Ocean, between Reunion Island to the west and teensy-weensy Rodrigues Island to the east, in the heart of the Mascarene Islands.

The island is 65 km long by 45 km wide maximum, which could give the impression that it is quick to go from point A to point B but que nenni. The roads have been carefully devised (What do you mean it wasn’t done on purpose?) to be as winding and convoluted as can be so any given short distance takes a couple of hours. Left, right, up, down, up again, right, left – you get it. Mozambique’s main road going all the way to the north being the most straight and boring road ever for hundreds of kilometres, tiny, twisted Mauritius was actually a lovely break from it.

Given the ridiculously tiny overall surface of the island, I am quite proud to say that we managed (Henry really) to drive the grand total of over 500 km over the course of 8 days. The following map is a quick outline of our itinerary but there was a lot of back and forth going on.

So what’s amazing and so charming and unique about Mauritius is the diversity of its people, thus of their food too, of its landscapes, the beauty of the beaches, the 50 shades of blue of the water and green of the nature around.

The historical past of the island is another story: a story of slavery, Dutch domination, slave trade, French colonisation, British colonisation, economical interests, cheap labour, exploitation… But hey, I’m sure that all these former empires would be very happy to tell you how beneficial this bleak past was as the population of Mauritius can now speak English, French and Mauritian Creole without any problem.

Mauritius Island became independent in 1968 and is now part of the Commonwealth and the Francophonie. Their past is behind them, with some old ruins, a few Martello Towers and numerous colonial houses to remind us of it. And with all the efforts they made towards a prosperous tourism, they’re doing very well.

The most touristic part of the island being in the north west… we decided to go first to the south (obviously!) which is supposed to be remote and more wild, then head to the east and drive back to the capital city and its surroundings for one day in order to see the hustle and bustle of the big metropolis Port Louis.

The south

With its beautiful nature, the south was a great start to our trip, even though the weather was pretty rubbish then. We quickly went to Black River Gorges and Grand Bassin as it was raining and overcast, but were lucky enough to enjoy walking around Chamarel Waterfall and Seven Coloured Earths and Curious Corner of Chamarel, and to go to the beach at Le Morne Brabant.On the way back from La Vanille Reserve de Mascareigne, the nature reserve, we stopped for a rum tasting at St Aubin rum house too as it is almost compulsory to do so

Of all the things we did in the South, Chamarel Seven Coloured Earths for the beauty and peculiarity of the different colours and La Vanille for the meeting with the Aldabra giant tortoises were the best. La Vanille’s “Savane des Tortues” is an amazing place where you get to be very close to these huge tortoises, one of which being one of the 5 largest giant tortoises in the world. He is called Domino and he has the grand old age of 106 years old! The guide there will make sure you learn everything about these huge animals, how they are born and raised at La Vanille, and mostly destined to be transferred to the François Leguat Giant Tortoise and Cave Reserve in Rodrigues. Before Man set foot on Rodrigues Island, there were around 300,000 tortoises living there. Can you imagine: when the first men got there, there were so many tortoises that the guys could walk on them for 100 metres without putting a foot on the ground! After a century of human exploitation and habitat destruction the tortoise species became extinct (What a great species we are…). So now a big conservation work is done towards the “re-wilding” of Rodrigues by recreating the ecosystem that was in place 300 years ago. On a lighter note, lunch at La Vanille was different variants of crocodile meat as the reserve is also a crocodile farm hosting thousands of them. Apparently experts agree that the survival of many of the world’s crocodile species can only be assured through farming. Which means that we could eat what Henry weirdly describes as “fishy chicken” (I kind of agree).

Along the west coast

We drove up along the west coast in two times. We first headed towards Casela Nature and Leisure Park but stopped on the way to visit the Martello Tower Museum. There are a few Martello Towers all along the coastline around Mauritius Island; the British built them as defensive forts against invasion during the Napoleonic Wars. The one we visited is the best preserved one of the island. It is small but there’s a cannon on the roof that you can turn 360°. And just for that reason, it is worth it

Casela is a humongous park with 1,500 birds, some of which you can see really close as you can enter inside a big birdcage with them. Then, we went to the farm to see ducks and their farm friends, then to the big cats’ enclosure to finish on a safari trying not to be bitten by ostriches. You can easily spend the whole day there as it is so big but it is a lovely place to walk around, with lots of shade, lush vegetation and very well maintained. The only disappointment was lemurs as Marlowe has a little obsession with them and we only saw a sleeping one

On another occasion, we went back to the west to visit Eureka, the capital city Port Louis and the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Gardens. Eureka is a beautiful colonial mansion in stunning surroundings. Built in 1856 by an Englishman, it was later auctioned and won by a Franco-Mauritian family, one of whom cried ‘Eureka’ when his bid was accepted. Eureka is now a museum. Built entirely in indigenous woods, the main building has over 100 doors and the rooms on the ground floor are filled with furniture from a bygone era.

Port Louis was interesting to visit even though it is always a bit hectic to visit a big city, especially with kids. But we stuck to the city centre, walked from the Jardins de la Compagnie to Jummah Mosque via the Central Market, had lunch at a delicious Chinese restaurant and saw enough of the bustling streets around us to get a feeling of it. I have to say the only times we got stuck in traffic was on the way in and out of Port Louis.

We then spent the afternoon strolling in the Botanic Gardens. It is a big maze there so we took a guide, a very funny guy who had all sorts of stories about why every tree looked the way it looked. Some were true, some were total lies but still very entertaining. There’s also a gorgeous Lotus Pond with yellow and white lotus flowers, and a huge Lily Pond covered in giant Amazon water lilies. And marmalade box, chewing gum and sausage trees. And bats, tons of them coming out at the end of the afternoon. Huge big bats coming out of tall palm trees. Beautiful.

So Mauritius is all about nature, and animals, and vegetation and places to see and things to do but Mauritius wouldn’t be Mauritius without its smashing beaches. Massive throwback to my memories of New Caledonia, especially Amedee Island. The coral reef all around the island enables you to enjoy the water without the splashing waves. The water is insanely blue, all shades of blue, so blue that it doesn’t look natural sometimes!

We were very lucky to spend the couple of beach days we had with a friend who is from Mauritius and whose family welcomed us so warmly. We first stayed in Roches Noires from where we went to Bernache Island. And then we went to Trou d’Eau Douce from where we took a boat to Île aux Cerfs. Life cannot get any better than that. Easy like a boat taking you for a picnic on a deserted island surrounded by crystal clear turquoise waters, really (the water can be crystal clear and turquoise if i want to).

On the way to Bernache Island:

On the way to Île aux Cerfs:

Also, something that I really liked about the population there -and coming from a fervent atheist like me, it means something!- is the multitude of little shrines and temples everywhere. Christian and Hindu mainly. Along the road, in villages, in people’s front yards or fields, in the water, everywhere! It gave a sense of diversity and inclusion that was heartwarming and inspiring.

People, go there if you can!

Thank you so much Géraldine for being our special adviser on this trip! Mauritius was a lot more special thanks to you (and your parents)

]]>https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/mauritius-diverse-and-delightful-tiny-island/feed/1fredmartin1976map-mauritius-copymauritius-mapMusic from Mozambique!https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/music-from-mozambique/
https://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/music-from-mozambique/#respondWed, 19 Oct 2016 16:11:18 +0000http://lokumsandcoconuts.wordpress.com/?p=2573There are so many talents in Mozambique.

Here are some of them… Enjoy.

GranMah

The Mute Band

Azagaia

340mil

Stewart Sukuma

Deltino Guerreiro

Açucar Castanho Experiment

A massive thank you to Alex who took the time to explain to me how to make this happen (embed videos, people! – yes, I am that computer-savvy!!)